For those
not familiar with it, the Rio player is a compact portable music
player capable of playing quality music files downloaded from
the Internet or from CD's. The player is about the size of a
deck of cards and roughly the same weight. Even better, it has
no moving parts so it won't skip. It comes with 32MB of
rewritable built-in flash memory which holds about 30-35 minutes
of CD-quality music (128 kbps). A 16MB external flash card can
increase playing time. Included with the Rio Player is a bonus
MP3.com CD with over 100 songs and other software and music
files. Also included is a single AA battery good for 12 hours
playing time, headphones and a short User Guide booklet. All of
this is available at a reasonable price of $200 (memory upgrade
is $50).

15:01 GMT - We are now affiliates with the Netigen
Website. Make sure you check them out, they provide us with
a number of articles and pieces of news each week.

15:00 GMT - Beta Bites takes a look at the new audio
media player Sonique
by Night 55.
With many media players hitting the Internet, what makes Sonique
so unique? Sonique emphasizes a fluid-like windowless design,
and packs the player with a ton of audio and visual features.
Not only is Sonique an eye-catching vision, but this media
player has the controls I want when playing music. Here is a
piece from ~Lockup's~ Sonique
0.62 Beta Preview:

If you
don't want that big Sonique media player open, then change it to
this conch shell-like design. Pretty fancy, isn't it? If you
look in the bottom circle, you can see Eric Clapton singing some
blues. This circle gives you all the information on the track
that is playing. The top circle tells you if Eric can hit those
high notes (not likely) by displaying the voice/sound output.

13:23 GMT - Windows 98 users can download Windows
Critical Update Notification, which allows them to be notified
when Windows Update posts an update that is specific to their
computer. Get it from the Windows
Update site.

13:20 GMT - For all who are curious about the
development of Internet Confidential, it is currently down for a
re-design.

18:53 GMT - Netscape has released the Netscape
SmartDownload that is a resuming feature for Netscape without
having to use a third-party program. This should help anyone who
gets disconnected during a download using the Netscape browser. [Source:
BetaBites]

18:48 GMT - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. Yamaha Systems
Technology Inc. announced what it says is the first hardware
accelerator for Microsoft's DirectMusic application programming
interface (API). The Yamaha DS-X series PCI audio chips will
offload DirectMusic synthesis to dedicated hardware, reducing
both CPU overhead and latency of sound generation on Windows 98
and Windows 2000 systems. Applications that support DirectMusic
run better and audio quality improves, says Yamaha. The chips
remain compatible with the General MIDI (GM) standards and
support downloadable sounds for games and other applications.
More is on the Internet at http://www.yamahayst.com.
[Source: Cool
Info]

08:55 GMT - Active Windows, part of the Active
Network, is currently seeking reviewers, newshounds, graphic
designers for this site. Job is volunteer only, however fringe
benefits include reviews of programs, large amount of web disk
space, an e-mail account, complete control of site
workers/content. Some computer/Internet/tech and/or HTML/writing
experience is a plus but not required. Serious seekers only
should contact Robert Stein, Owner, at bobstein@activeie.com
- Positions are open immediately. You must be over 18.

19:57 GMT - MSDN Online Chat will be holding a
DirectPlay discussion on Friday, Dec. 11th at 9-10 a.m. (PST)
5-6 p.m. (GMT) on the MSDN
Online Chat. The DirectPlay team will be live to answer
questions about and discuss the future of DirectPlay. You can
keep abreast with the DirectX upcoming chats on the DirectX
Chat Resources and Online Events page. [Source:
BetaBites]

19:40 GMT -Intel
Future-Proofs Design - There have been mixed reactions from
analysts and enterprises to a bold initiative by Intel to create
a smoother PC upgrade cycle.

19:39 GMT - As expected: There is not too much new news
around at the moment due to Thanksgiving in the US.

13:24 GMT - We mentioned on ActiveIE
a few weeks ago that there would be no Internet Explorer 5 beta
3 - We can now confirm that the
next release will be the final, and for once it is ahead
of schedule.

QCI
for ICQ is a simple yet useful utility for backing up and
restoring your ICQ contact list(s). If you reinstall ICQ, just
restore a backed-up copy of your list. You'll be spared the
process of adding every contact again, and you won't lose any.
Everything is backed up, including message history, sound
settings, ignore lists, invisible lists, and more. QCI has a
simple, attractive interface and is a valuable addition to
ICQ. Note that this is a beta version. This version has not
yet been reviewed.

16:02 GMT - ActiveSci-Fi.com,
part of the Active Network, is currently seeking reviewers and a
webmaster for the site. Job is volunteer only, however fringe
benefits include reviews of movies, large amount of web disk
space, an e-mail account and complete control of site
workers/content. Some Sci-Fi and or HTML/writing experience is a
plus but not required. Serious seekers only should contact
Robert Stein, Owner, at bobstein@activeie.com
- Position is open immediately.

14:20 GMT -BT
invests $10 million in Excite UK - British
Telecommunications, Britain's largest phone company, today
announced it will buy a 50 percent stake in Web portal Excite's
U.K. subsidiary with a $10 million investment. Now BT, why not
think about giving the UK free local calls?

02:41 GMT -It seems that
GlobalScape has released an update to its popular FTP client. CuteFTP
2.6.1 contains numerous minor bug fixes, which should tide
users over until the next major release. As Netigen Web
mentioned earlier this month, GlobalScape has shelved plans for
a 2.7 release, in favor of developing CuteFTP 3.0. This release
will be available for beta testing early in December. [Source:
NetiGen]

In
version 3.30 Beta 5, Ideveloped a new way to
snap DirectX screens, including games, videos, DVD etc. It is no
longer necessary to start HyperSnap-DX and enable DirectX
capture first, before the target program. HyperSnap-DX can be
started or stopped at any time, and it will capture these
screens correctly. DirectX and Glide capture is now a lot more
stable, should not cause game/computer crashes or lock-ups.

14:53 GMT -New
evidence of Microsoft pushing IE - Antitrust prosecutors
have released new evidence documenting deals Microsoft signed
with Internet service providers and Web sites to get them to
distribute the Internet Explorer browser exclusively, or at
least to the vast majority of their customers.

14:50 GMT - Just a reminder that the CIH virus will
strike again for some people on the 26th of this month, so make
sure you have updated all your virus checker programs.

03:45 GMT - Our main designer, tips, articles and news
writer for all of our websites, Byron
Hinson is due to leave us completely very soon - this gives
us a large number of problems to deal with, 1: ActiveGuide and
ActiveSci-Fi will be closing down. 2: Being our main news writer
we are not sure how we will cope with the loss.

Byron
is leaving for a number of reasons, the main one being the cost
of calls in the UK for him to stay on the internet and update
are becoming far too high ($600 a month sometimes). Perhaps a
company would like to sponsor his phonecalls?<g> No? oh
well.

We wish Byron well in whatever he chooses to do next, we are
sure everyone has appreciated all the work he put into Internet
Explorer and Windows 98 information over the past couple of
years and he will be missed by us all.

01:46 GMT -Diamond
ships Rio MP3 player - After much controversy, Diamond
Multimedia today began shipping its Rio PMP300 portable music
player, just in time for the holiday shopping season.

"While
Katmai remains a relatively stock Pentium II design with an
extended SIMD unit, the K7 is a ground-up re-architecting of the
IA-32 instruction set. With three general-execution units and
three address-calculation units, K7 will be a wider superscalar
machine than the Pentium II, said AMD's director of K7
engineering, Dirk Meyer.

On the
floating-point side, particularly for X87 code, the difference
between the K7 and the Pentium II is even more apparent, he
said. The K7 has two double-precision, fully pipelined X87 data
paths, compared with one for the Pentium II -- which, according
to Meyer, is not fully pipelined for double precision"

14:28 GMT - We have a few new members coming onto the
ActiveWindows staff in the next few weeks - we also have one
leaving too - we will give out more details very soon. (We're
posting this because of the lack of new news this
afternoon<g>)

04:18 GMT - First: We have been sent in a small list of
features that are included in the OSR 1 Beta 1.

Microsoft
Internet Explorer 5.0 Beta 2

DirectX6.1:
new drivers and graphics and sound engines for running the
latest software

Windows
98 Service Pack 1 updates, including:

Windows
Media Player: a unified media player, capable of running a host
of multimedia file formats in a single application

Euro Font
Character support

WebTV for
Windows Update

Device
Bay: expands Windows 98's hardware support to include a new
industry standard for PC peripherals

03:03 GMT -First with the News: We have been
sent reports that Windows 98 OSR 1 Beta 1 has been released to
testers today. This has now been confirmed.

21st
November 1998

Office 2000 - Decaf - Wheel Mice

19:46 GMT - We have removed various pieces of pointless
HTML and ancient VBScript from the website, we have also started
to add a few more CSS effects for those of you with more
advanced browsers like Internet Explorer 4/5 and Netscape 4.5.

Having
been bombarded with claims from very happy users of the new mice
that have come out lately, I decided that I had to try one of
these new rodents for myself. "Brings surfing to a whole
new level", stated one of my friends. Well, with comments
like this I just had to go out and buy one. Going down to my
local computer shop, I was disappointed to see only two
different models, neither of which were the one I was looking
for particularly, which happened to be the Logitech MouseMan
Wheel with 4, yes four buttons including the wheel.
Unfortunately, the store only had the Logitech First Mouse+ and
the Microsoft Intellimouse. It turned out that I liked the feel
of the First Mouse+, probably because of my large hands, and my
friend preferred the Intellimouse. After a few days my friend
called and said that he had gone back to his old mouse,
preferring its feel over that of the Intellimouse so he sold it
to me for a good price. My feelings on both mice and a final
conclusion follow.

14:17 GMT -New
twist in Microsoft Java feud - Following a federal judge's
ruling against Microsoft this week in Sun's lawsuit against it,
the giant will strip its Java virtual machine out of the
Internet Explorer Web browser for Macintosh and Unix, according
to a letter sent to IE licensees. Earlier, Microsoft said that
Windows 98 users were unaffected by the decision, and that the
company is "committed to supporting Java for all our
customers."

19:56 GMT -Visual
Basic holes open for e-mail viruses - Anti-virus researchers
have identified a class of viruses, called HTML viruses, which
hide out in Web pages or e-mail and activates when users view
the content.

19:47 GMT -Compaq
shows off Windows 2000 beta - Compaq Computer is
demonstrating Windows 2000-ready PCs at Comdex this week, the
first indication that Microsoft's partners are in lockstep with
the company as it prepares for the launch of its next-generation
operating system.

19:42 GMT -Microsoft
calms customers on Java ruling - Attempting to avoid any
customer confusion over a federal judge's order siding with Sun
Microsystems, Microsoft is telling customers that there will be
no major changes in Java products as a result of the ruling.

15:27 GMT -Faster,
cheaper Windows terminals - Network Computing Devices
announced availability of a faster, Pentium II-based thin client
at Comdex this week, while Boundless Technologies aimed for the
other end of the market with an inexpensive low-end terminal.

15:24 GMT -Gartner
urges caution on Windows 2000 - Research firm Gartner Group
has re-emphasised its warning on NT5.0 -- Windows 2000 --
advising users not to upgrade to the product until at least a
year after launch.

01:59 GMT - Sun
wins injunction against Microsoft - A U.S. District Court
judge today ruled that Sun Microsystems is likely to prevail on
the merits of its licensing case against Microsoft, and granted
Sun's request for a preliminary injunction.

17th November 1998

Comdex - XML - Neoplanet Skins

22:20 GMT - McAfee
has released VirusScan 4.01 for a 30 day trial download
(8518 KB) or $29.95 shareware.

20:44 GMT - NeoPlanet has added a a number of new skins
to it's skin
archive.

20:33 GMT -Intel
gives in to chip integration - Integrated processors--a move
that Intel has
criticized and avoided in the past--will be coming out of the
company in 2000, said a company executive here at Comdex,
escalating a push to make its chips more competitive.

15:07 GMT -Microsoft
aiming at Oracle - Microsoft's Steve Ballmer projects that
the firm will sell more than 3 million licenses of its latest
enterprise database software product this year.

20:50 GMT -Microsoft
lines up SQL Server backers - Microsoft's SQL Server is
taking center stage at Comdex as vendors line up to showcase
their support for the giant's long-awaited database server.

20:42 GMT -Compaq
unveils 'Internet PCs' - The company on Monday introduced a
new line of PCs equipped with digital modems, as well as a
series of partnerships to give consumers a range of options for
hooking up to the Internet.

20:19 GMT -GlobeScape
Shelves CuteFTP 2.7 and Develops 3.0 Beta - Well over
a month ago, CuteFTP 2.6 was undergoing extensive public beta
testing. Within days of it reaching a final release, GlobeScape
had already prepared the online world for an upcoming beta
release of 2.7. However, GlobeScape has apparently changed those
plans -- CuteFTP 3.0 is currently being developed and prepared
for beta release sometime in December. Version 2.7 had
originally been expected by mid-November. [Source:
NetiGen]

16:12 GMT -Comdex
spotlight falls on ease of use - Smaller developers say they
can do what Microsoft and Intel together cannot -- make PCs
easier to use. And they'll be showing how they plan to do it
this week at Comdex.

16:05 GMT - We were a bit slow here - but anyway, The Microsoft
Office 2000 website has opened up for participation in both
the Consumer and Corporate Preview Programs. It is well worth
going in for it.

14:43 GMT -Nullsoft
has released Winamp
2.05, It includes a bunch of bug fixes and a number of new
features.

14:20 GMT - Updated the side frame for
Netscape users. We will update the Netscape layout again later
this week.

15th November 1998

SyQuest Down - WebPad

19:48 GMT - We have been switching some more
parts of the site to include server side stuff, this is in
anticipation of upcoming news engine addition for all of our
websites, kind of like the one that we use on ActiveSci-Fi.

00:25 GMT - For all of you who don't know,
SyQuest has ceased operation. And with all the drivers and tech
support gone, this can create quite some turmoil. We find that Windrivers.com
has provided a solution.

20:24 GMT - We have updated the side menu for
Internet Explorer 4/5 users.

14:11 GMT - Not much news about today - but
anyway. Intel roadmap - Intel puts the pedal to
the metal, accelerating the pace for rolling out Celeron
processors and cutting chip prices in the bargain. See
full story.

20:32 GMT -Netscape:
IE 3.0 Users Can't Download Communicator 4.5. Netscape
officials said some Web users will have trouble using older
versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer to download the latest
version of Netscape's own Communicator 4.5 browser because of a
12mb limit on downloads.

19:43 GMT - On Friday, November 13, at 9-10
a.m. (PST) 5-6 p.m. (GMT), the DirectX team will be live at MSDN
Online Chat to answer your questions about DirectX
Transforms. Designed to simplify the implementation of
transforms (wipes, ripples, and 3D morphs, just to name a few),
DirectX Transforms is based on COM and opens the door for the
use of a wide range of media elements without limiting
developers to a single visual authoring tool. Visit the
DirectX website.

13:40 GMT - Testers get Office 2000 beta - Microsoft
will this week launch the second beta of its latest desktop
productivity suite, as
expected. Office 2000 will be available to an unprecedented
700,000 testers beginning Wednesday, said Office product manager
John Duncan.

15:00 GMT - A new beta of the Service Pack 1
for Windows 98 went to testers, this seems to include new
"Processor Support" we are unsure what that means and
are waiting clarification but it could be either Dual Processor
support or just something completely boring like AMD's 3Dnow.

17:43 GMT - This is good - we ask you to use
our newsgroups to speak to us, then they all go down. We will
post a msg here as soon as they are back up and running.

11.40 GMT - Since we receive numerous mails
everyday, please understand that we can't reply every single one
in time. Instead if you want to voice an opinion, solve a
problem or share an idea, try our newsgroups. You can expect a
speedier reply and more flexibility.

02:42 GMT -DirectDraw
bug causes crashes. Microsoft
today acknowledged a problem with its DirectDraw Java foundation
classes that causes computers to crash. A demonstration of the
problem has been posted
to the Web by the programmer who discovered it, Fabio Ciucci of
Italy.

02:31 GMT - On the heals of yesterday's
NeoPlanet 2.0 update and the release of beta build 315, the
NeoPlanet Scheme Archive has been updated with nine new schemes.
The schemes are now presented in a more organized manner, with
screenshots provided as well. (Source: NetiGen)

02:14 GMT - Do you need a professionally designed
corporate site? Do you want to be on the cutting edge of
technology? Do you want to stay ahead of your competitor and put
your product/service online? If you answered yes, you need to
take advantage of a dark-design site. E-mail Robert
Stein for a quote today!

20:26 GMT - The full release of Office
2000 has been delayed according to sources close to the
company. Instead of shipping in the first quarter of 1999 as
expected, the product will ship the following quarter, thus
extending a widespread beta program.

20:32 GMT - The new "Critical Update
Notification Component" is now online at Windows
Update.

Critical Update Notification is the
best way to keep your computer up-to-date and protected from
potential security issues affecting Microsoft
Windows. Download this component and the next time you are
connected to the Internet you will be notified if there are any
critical updates to Windows available for your system. You can
choose to download the update right away, or to postpone until a
time that is more convenient for you.

20:31 GMT -Microsoft,
Qualcomm ready deal - Qualcomm
and Microsoft
will announce the formation of a new company focusing on
wireless data communications next week, a move heralding the
software giant's entry into yet another "convergence"
market.

14:23 GMT - Want to check out the feature
list of ICQ 99 (Just gone into beta). Look
no further.

14:13 GMT -Forget
Taco Bell! Yo Quiero USB! The USB bandwagon is gaining
momentum. And delivering easier, faster, friendlier connections
between your PC and its peripherals. It may be the best thing
you can do for your computer.

11:52 GMT - First with the news - Internet
Explorer 5 Beta 2 has been officially released at last. As
we mentioned the other day, if you downloaded it while the
servers were open before the weekend, you do NOT need to
download it again.

02:20 GMT - Just a note that we have received
confirmation that IE 5.0 Beta 2 is build 1013.9 (5.00.0910.1309)
- So those of you who downloaded it the other day off of the
Public server need not worry about a newer build being posted.

23:41 GMT - Incase once Internet Explorer 5
Beta 2 is released and you want to get the ie5setup.exe from the
large number of legitimate websites...check this
page out for the full list (around 7/8 of these servers have
the beta 2 ie5setup.exe on them)

This
site is not related to the Microsoft Corporation in any
way. Windows and the Windows logo are
trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. ActiveWindows is
an independent site. The information and sources here are obtained from
series of hard work & research.